Canon series XH series or XL series???

[Micah Mcdowell]

I believe the XL and XH cameras are fairly similar in most respects; I know that the XL-H1 has an interchangeable lens while the XH-A1 does not, and the various Canon HD cameras have different sets of video outputs, etc. Refer to the Canon camcorder forum if you want details.

The XH and XL cameras are HDV format… if you want the “BEST QUALITY IMAGE POSSIBLE WITH HD”, it won’t be these. If you want very nice quality for the price, they’re worth a look.

[Richard Herd]

the XL-H1s has an hd-sdi pipe out the back. At 1.5GBs, it’s tough to beat that feature when combined with a few other tools, like the aja ki pro or the aja i/o…(not to mention renting an HDCAM deck).

[Luis Asencio]

Thanks. which one would you recommend for the best High Def quality?

Luis

Innova Video

[Micah Mcdowell]

Well, as was already mentioned, the XL-H1s has the ability to output through HD-SDI, so if you record externally to another device (whether it be a computer connected through an AJA product or a VERY expensive HDCAM deck), it would give some of the best quality available over anything else in that price range.

However, depending on what you want to do with the camera, this is probably ridiculously impractical, and is really only an option in a studio setting, so forget all that I just said.

From what I’ve seen in some of your other posts and the replies you’ve received, I’d say an XL-H1s would be GREAT for you… just get one and shoot with it; the capabilites are endless.

I noticed you posted in another forum that you were considering the HV30; for it’s price, it’s a nice little camera that has surprising abilites, but it is in no way ‘professional’. I recommended it to my uncle for taping his kid’s basketball games, but I’d never recommend it to someone for serious production/filmmaking. The XL will serve you MUCH better (better form factor, professional controls, proper professional mic inputs, interchangeable lens, and altogether better quality).

[Todd Terry]

I’ll keep this brief…

Don’t want to be too much of a cheerleader, but I’m a HUGE fan of the XLH1. We’ve been using them since right when they first came out, and I must say it’s just about my favorite camera ever.

Tons of features, stunning picture, more than two dozen tweakable parameters so you can really paint the camera, and lots and lots of real physical buttons, knobs, and switches that control the most-used features so you don’t have to try to wade through endless on-screen menu items that much. It’s just a great little camera. Not cheap, but great.

I hardly ever use the stock lens (I almost always shoot cine primes), but even on occasions that I did, I found the stock zoom to be a pretty nice lens indeed.

T2

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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com